This invention pertains to systems for providing lighting of buildings from natural sources and more particularly to a system which will entrap and reflect sunlight or heat into a building.
Many buildings such as certain livestock and poultry confinement units and even including dwellings such as those using surrounding earth as an insulating means are difficult to light except with artificial lighting. Skylights, although possible, have certain drawbacks such as a tendency, particularly in the winter, to collect frost or condensate and then to drop water in the area below. They are also limited in area so that several may be required. Windows are inefficient insulators and--again in winter--make for cold drafts in the area beneath each window. That is particularly objectionable in livestock or poultry buildings.
By my invention, I provide a system in which sun rays from a fairly large area can be collected and reflected into the building and diffused from there. The structure is such that only a single window is necessary, and the treatment of frost or condensation on the window is one commonly known to almost any builder of the sort of structure involved. A more complete understanding of the invention and its benefits may be had from the following description and the figures in which: